Birthday Surprises
by The Big Dance
Summary: I never saw the big deal with birthdays. Sure, you get these little bags that probably have some of Zonko’s newest candies but what is the big deal? At least that is what I used to believe. Until Hogwarts, that is. [Written from James and Lily's POV.]
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Nothing you see here is mine.

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Please read Author's Note right after the Summary before the story.

Summary: James and Lily have had many encounters over the years, some pleasant and some…not so pleasant but the most memorable ones happened during their birthdays. Join them as they go through one birthday after another throughout their years at Hogwarts.

**  
A/N: Hello! waves> Anyone remember me? Well, I broke away from my busy, busy schedule, sat myself down and just wrote it. I am not sure if it is actually any good so if you could tell me what I could improve, I could change it and repost it. Does anyone know anybody that could beta my stories?**

**I had a really creative idea for this story. I was thinking that since this story is based around the idea of birthdays, I would always update this story on the birthday of one of my reviewers. So review and leave your birthday on the review. You never know, the next chapter might just be dedicated to you!**

**So, to start off the chapter on a good note, I updated the story on my birthday (17th)! I'm finally 15 years old!**

**Review and the next chapter might just be for you.**

_  
Special mention must go to **Placid Destruction** for allowing me to use her idea! Thanks so much!_

And another note, this story will be switching off between James and Lily's POV during the time of their birthday. For example, first year will be James POV, James' birthday. Second year will be Lily POV and Lily's birthday and so on.

I probably have been talking way too much so without further ado, I present Birthday Surprises. Enjoy!

James

_Lily

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_

**Birthday Surprises

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**

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you…"

Ever heard that song?

_  
James_, _I'm sure that they have. They must have gone to at least 100 birthday parties in their lifetime. _

Oh, come on Lily, don't interrupt. That was such a good introduction and you ruined it. Besides, who's telling the story, you or me?

…

Lily?

_  
...Oh, okay. You are._

Good, now say 'James Potter is the sexiest wizard ever to step into this world'.

_  
James, sweetie?_

Yes, Lily dearest.

_  
Who wears the pants in this relationship?_

…

_  
James?_

…you do.

_  
Good, now continue the story or this else._

Right then, on with the story.

**---------------**

I never saw the big deal with birthdays. Sure, you get these little bags that probably have some of Zonko's newest candies but what is the big deal?

_  
James, a birthday is when you celebrate your life. It is a once—_

—At least that is what I used to believe. Until Hogwarts, that is.

_  
Oh, honestly. James Potter, you are such a rude person._

Hey, I could stop if you want me to.

_  
No, just keep going._

At Hogwarts, I met some people who changed my entire view on birthdays.

---------------

- Sirius Black, someone who puts a whole new meaning to the word party and doesn't hesitate to give you one of the aforementioned parties.

_Oh, of course. Remember last week's party at his apartment? I think you still have the hangover from that._

- Remus Lupin, someone you can almost always guarantee will give you the best gift for your birthday that can range from Jane Eyre to Sex 101.

_How he knew that you and Sirius were reading that book in the catalogue I will never know. Remus knows you much too well for your and my own good._

- Peter Pettigrew, the person you know will always remember your birthday and be one of the first people to wish you for it.

_Well, actually that last part isn't true anymore since we live together._

Lily dearest, that's because you sleep right next to me in the bed and you're the first person I see when I wake up after an intense romance session from the night before where we—

_James! Continue with the story or else!_

- Tracy Foster, one of the world's sweetest people who will give you some of the world's sweetest chocolate and then will eat it with you afterwards.

_You know James, I must talk to Tracy. She keeps spoiling you like this and look at how fat you're getting to be!_

Lily, I am not getting fat!

_Oh, of course not. I just like seeing your reaction, it is bloody hilarious!_

- Carina Thomas, someone who will always make you crack a smile and give you one of the latest Quidditch supplies as her dad owns the Quidditch Store.

_James, she owns it now. _

Oh, yeah. I forgot.

_How could you forget, what with the four of you constantly going in there and getting free stuff?_

- And Lily Evans, the person who will always manage to melt your heart with that smile of hers and make you feel like 'Damn, now this is what I lived another year for'.

…

Lily! Why are you crying? You know how I am around crying people, are you doing this to torture me?

_  
No, James! It's just that…that was really sweet of you to write that down in this book. You know that people years from now will be able to see that._

Of course. That's why I said it.

…

…

Okay, kids. Lily and I are a bit busy right now so I don't think we will be able to continue this right now. Instead, why don't flip through this book and take a look at all the memorable birthdays we shared during our years at Hogwarts.

Maybe by the time you are done…

…your view of birthdays will change as well.

Like mine did.

Until next time (or at least the next time you read this seeing as to how it is a book),  
James Potter  
_Lily Evans

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_

**A/N: If you could just leave your name, birthday, and a review, I'll try to update as soon as possible. Thanks!**

**- BEEEEEP! -**

**Just review.**

**The Big Dance**


	2. First Year

Disclaimer: Nothing you see here is mine.

* * *

Summary: James and Lily have had many encounters over the years, some pleasant and some…not so pleasant but the most memorable ones happened during their birthdays. Join them as they go through one birthday after another throughout their years at Hogwarts. 

**A/N: Uh, hi?I know that nothing I say will make up for this late update even though I swore I would never wait so long before posting another chapter. I'll spare you the drama and just explain to you that I tried my best to write this before _lilyheartsjames_'s birthday (so, so, so sorry for the late update…actually late is an understatement. Hopefully you will be able to forgive me). But, it's here now and let's…let bygones be bygones?**

**IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE: This journal of Lily and James works like a pensieve. Each entry is actually a memory implanted into the journal so we feel like we are actually there. Basically, it replays certain memories of theirs. So, if you are reading it and you don't believe that you are reading a journal…well, it is because it is not an actual journal. Understand?**

**Okay, on with the chapter! **

**---**

**Dedicated to _lilyheartsjames_, one of the nicest people for letting me post this for her so late for her birthday (please forgive me) and the author of one of my favorite stories.

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**

James POV—First Year

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_December 20 (The Birthday)_

I woke up to the annoying alarm next to my bed.

"What?" I said. I turned off the alarm last night, I know I did. Why would I want to wake up early during the holidays? Turning back onto my side, I clamped my eyes shut trying to get more sleep but after a half an hour of tossing and turning, I got up, already annoyed with the way the day was turning out. I got up out of bed and, spotting my broomstick, decided to go for a ride outside. I didn't have anything better to do anyway. As I closed the door, I saw a light flicker on and off. I opened the door to see if maybe Sirius or Remus was awake but saw them both sound asleep. Staring at the room one more time, I walked out of the room.

I must still be half asleep.

**------------------**

Oh wow.

I can't believe I haven't flown yet at Hogwarts. Sure, there was flying class but everyone was learning so slow that we hadn't even gotten off the ground yet.

But this was so cool. I have never been so amazed by flying before.

I must have been in the air for hours. I saw the early morning sun, which I didn't even know existed. All those colors and birds and snow and—

Oh god. I am starting to sound like a girl.

Shaking my head clear of thoughts, I started racing around on my broom. Flying back and forth, weaving between trees, over and under the Quidditch hoops. Finally I just stopped and floated in mid-air, staring at the sky.

This was so cool.

From now on, I am getting up early every morning.

**------------------**

Getting off my broom, I rushed to breakfast, thinking it must be almost over by now. As I got there, I saw Carina sitting there with an extra plate of food next to her.

"Hey, Carina. Anyone eating that?"

"Take it. It's for you anyway."

Grabbing the plate, which I noticed had all my favorite foods, I quickly ate the food and before I knew it, I was looking for seconds.

"Wow, slow down! What did you do that made you so hungry?"

"Been flying." I said, my mouth full of eggs.

"Oh…Oh! Did you get the new Comet 300 that my dad sent for you?"

"Broke it in this morning." I grinned.

Carina is so cool, she and I have been neighbors for over 6 years now and her dad owns the local Quidditch Supplies store in our neighborhood. Thanks to him, I have been getting all the latest Quidditch things and all for half off!

"That's great, James! By the way, you might want to stuff yourself up."

"Why?"

"Well, um…you don't know what kind of food they might be serving later on?"

"Fair enough."

I didn't want to risk making her mad by asking her more questions. She mighttake my broomstick back.

**------------------**

What is wrong with people today? God, I haven't eaten anything since breakfast ended because the stupid people I call my friends don't want me to. I am starving, really mad, and above all else, locked in the stupid boys' dorm room!

First, it was Remus during lunch who, for some reason, sat down next to me and started to tell me about some tribal cultures who eat bugs, dirt, and animals' insides. You know, hearts, arms, and legs.

That put me off food for while.

And then at 2:00, body parts or not, I was going to eat some food so I started to sneak off to the kitchens which Sirius and I found in our second week in school. I got about 2 feet outside the common room when Sirius walks by and starts telling me some bizarre story about the house elves being sick and how there was "house-elf throw up" in the food and that I shouldn't eat in the kitchens. Of course, the hunger got to me and I screamed back "I don't care! I am going to eat some food, poisoned or not, and no one in this entire school is going to stop me!"

This exact moment of course, Carina and Remus came together and the three of them dragged me back to the Common Room.

**-**

At 2:30, Carina, Remus, and Sirius had all left to go get something. They had been guarding me for the past half hour and after they left, I jumped up and ran towards the kitchen. I managed to escape from their hands and almost got to the portrait of the Fat Lady when Evans walks by.

"Going somewhere?" she asked.

"Um, actually, I just wanted to talk a stroll in the hallways."

"Yeah right. What, do you think I was born yesterday?"

"Well, actually—"

"Be quiet, Potter. Now, I am under strict demands to not let you go anywhere near food so I am afraid you must go back to your seat."

I looked at her 5'0" body and smirked slightly.

"Come on, Evans. You don't really think you could take me?"

"Oh, yes. I could. _Petrificus Totalus!_"

My arms and legs snapped shut and I fell on the ground with a thud. She levitated me into the couch and as she came over, I glared at her as hard as I could.

"Sorry, Potter. It is for your own good."

**-**

At 3:14 (seeing as to how I was facing Evans' watch this whole time), Sirius, Remus, and Carina came back. Sirius took one look at me, nodded towards Remus, Carina, and Evans, who undid the spell. After stretching my arms and legs, I glared at all of them. Sirius and Remus came next to me and held my arms down.

"It's time." They said at the same time.

"What?" I was starting to get a little bit scared.

They started dragging me towards the dorm room and I frantically tried to pull away from them.

"Carina, Evans, McGonagall, Dumbledore! Someone HELP me! I am being kidnapped by these people! Come on, Carina. After all those years, would you really let these people do this to me?"

Carina nodded her head, a solemn smile on her face.

"It's for your own good." She said.

I widened my eyes and looked towards Evans.

"Evans, I know we don't know each other that well but you gotta help me! Look at this…you can't let them do this to me! You don't want me to die in their hands now, would you? I would be on your conscience for the rest of your life. "

Evans just shook her head, a slight smile on her face, and said "It's for your own good."

I started whimpering as we reached the top of the stairs.

"MERLIN, AGRIPPA…GOD! GOD, PLEASE! HELP ME, I AM BEING ABDUCTED AND I HAVEN'T LIVED LONG ENOUGH…I HAVEN'T EVEN PLAYED ON THE HOGWARTS QUIDDITCH TEAM YET, FOR MERLIN'S SAKE!"

Sirius and Remus pushed me into the room and closed the door, locking it from the outside.

"It's for your own good." They said.

Okay, that phrase is starting to scare me now.

I pounded on the door and after 5 minutes of pounding, I gave up. Looking around, I spotted my broomstick and squealed in happiness. Grabbing it, I almost leaped out the window only to find Evans and Remus standing guard.

"Don't even try it, James (Potter in Evans' case)."

And I didn't. At least in the dorm room, I had a better chance of living.

With Evans down there, I would have died the minute I jumped out of the window.

Which is why I, for the first time in my life, listened to my friends and stayed in the dormitory.

**-**

It is now 6:30.

And in case you haven't noticed, I am still locked in the dormitory.

Although it isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I don't know what is going on in the Common Room that they don't want me eating and watching but Sirius and Remus really thought of everything. I mean, there is some muggle game they left here called Monopoly and I really like it!

I was just about to buy Park Lane for ₤200 (I bargained with myself) when Remus burst through the stairs with a giant smile on his face.

"Come on, James! Sirius is dying down there!"

"What? Wait, I was just about to win and there is so…" I trailed off when I saw the look of confusion on Remus' face.

"Never mind then. Er, why is Sirius dying? A new prank he wants to try?"

Remus rolled his eyes and dragged me down the stairs with him. I got about 1 foot outside the dorm rooms when I saw balloons floating around every which way.

What the—

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JAMES! (Potter in Evans' case)"

Huh? It's my birthday?

Okay, three days ago we turned in our Charms essays for Flitwick, which was the 17th of December. On the 18th we went to Hogsmeade so yesterday was the 19th, which would make today the 20th—

Oh, right. My birthday.

"Potter, why are you counting how many fingers you have? Even you can't be that stupid." Evans said.

"Oh come on Lily. It's his birthday. I don't think you should be insulting him…OR calling him Potter. At least call him James on his birthday." Carina exclaimed with a roll of her eyes and her arms crossed across her chest.

"Fine. But, _James_, why were you counting your fingers?" Evans said, mimicking Carina by rolling her eyes also.

"Oh, I didn't realize it was my birthday."

"What? How can you not know it is your birthday?" Evans said, scrunching up her nose.

"It's simple really. We, me and my family, don't really pay attention to these sort of things, so it's normal for me to forget my birthday." I replied while shrugging my shoulders.

Evans looked at Carina and she and Sirius nodded their heads together sympathetically.

"So, what'll it be James? Cake or presents?" Remus asked, all the while heading to the presents.

The mention of cake hit me like a bullet and I glared at the people I called my friends.

"Okay, speaking of cake, because of this so called birthday party you didn't allow me to eat food for nearly 9 hours! What does starvation have anything to do with birthday parties?"

At this point, Carina glared at Sirius, who whimpered and hid behind Remus.

"It's all Sirius' fault! When he told the house-elves to make food for the first years, he _assumed_ that the house-elves knew that _we _are the only first years staying in Hogwarts for the holidays. But of course, the poor house-elves didn't know and have made enough food to feed the entire first-year population. I didn't want to starve you, Jam-Jam, but someone has to finish all that food! We knew that if you were starving you would eat it all so we had to stop you from eating. That's why we kept you in the dorms for so long (sorry about that also) since we had to get all that food in here somehow. I am so sorry, you know that I am feeling extremely guilty right now, please don't kill me!" Carina finished, in one extremely large breath, and kneeled down on her knees with her hands clasped in front of her.

Evans and Remus started snickering from the sides and Sirius looked on with an extremely hopeful look.

"I don't blame you, Rina. But if someone doesn't give me food right now, I will be doing something."

"James, you are the bestest friend, and brother, that anyone could ever have! If I ever do—"

"Sirius, if my hunger wasn't so high and the cake didn't look so tempting, I would be chasing you right now. And Rina as well, for the Jam-Jam comment. So, someone give me some of that cake or I will change my mind."

**------------------**

God, Rina was right. That was a whole lot of food.

I thought I would never say it but I am stuffed.

Seriously.

"Presents!" Sirius yelled.

I jumped up and ran towards the presents, behind Sirius by an inch.

For people who just had tons of food, you would think they wouldn't even be able to walk and talk, let alone jump up, run, and yell.

"Open mine first!" Sirius shouted.

I eagerly opened his present and found a huge bag of dungbombs.

"Cool! Now we can pull all those pranks we wanted to pull!"

"I know," Sirius yelled, "that's why I got something for you that we could both use!"

Setting Sirius' gift carefully aside on the couch, I opened Remus' gift to find a book titled "Handy Spells for Handy Purposes—_an A to Z guide of spells for passing notes, pranking and more!_

"Wow, Remus! This is amazing! We can use this if we want to pass notes in class and now we won't get caught by Slughorn anymore." I replied, while flipping through the book and looking for spells that looked interesting.

"James, why do you have to actually read everything you get the minute you get it? You waste so much time! Open mine next!"

Rolling my eyes while putting Remus' gift down, I quickly opened Carina's gift, just to please her, and found a book that I was dying to have.

"_Quidditch Through the Ages_! Finally, I thought I would never find this book, it's been sold out for weeks!"

"Well, Daddy knew you wanted it so he set aside a copy of it for you. I knew this would be the perfect gift for you." Rina said, while smirking at Sirius, who looked annoyed that his gift was not exactly the best.

I started reading the first page when I heard someone clearing their throat.

"Something in your throat, Evans?"

"No, there's nothing, but you never opened my gift."

"Yougotme something?"

"Well, seeing as to how you and I are both here during the holidays and we were going to be celebrating your birthday, I thought I should probably get something."

Curious, I grabbed at the last gift (it was the smallest) and opened it. Inside the box, I found a broom. A tiny broom almost the length of my hand with a weird little point at the top.

"Um, thanks Evans. But what is it?"

Evans rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Wizards. It's a pen, James. Muggles use it to write things with. Except yours is different, since I transfigured it into a broom and muggles don't generally use broom-shaped pens."

"How does this work?"

"You pull that lever thing that's next to the sweeping part of the broom and ink comes—HEY!"

I pulled the lever as she said and to my surprise, ink did come out. Just not where I planned it.

"Sorry, Evans!" I said, while reaching for her shirt to wipe it off, "It was an accident!"

"Accident, my foot. You planned that, James Potter!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Jamesdidn't do it on purpose!" Sirius replied.

"Thanks Sirius. At least someone believe me."Isaid while looking at Evans.

"And even if he did, what are you going to do about it?" Sirius said, standing up to get next to her.

I hit my head with my book, sometimes Sirius can be such an idiot.

Evans narrowed her eyes and walked towards the leftover cake. Taking some in her hand, she calmly walked up to Sirius and put it on top of his head.

Sirius stood there, shocked. Remus started to stand up and walk towards Sirius with a worried look on his face and Carina just stared at Evans in awe.

Then, Sirius walked up next to the cake, took some in his hand and threw it towards Evans, who ducked causing the cake to hit Remus instead.

Remus wiped it off his face and kept walking, as if he didn't even notice. But then, he took some cake, threw it to his right (seeing as to how he couldn't really see through the cake) and hit Carina, catching her completely by surprise.

Soon they were in a full-blown food fight (actually there was only cake and pie left), every man (or girl) for himself. It was quite funny that everyone seemed to have forgotten me and just kept hitting each other. Then, Evans spotted me and gained this mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Hey! Potter, James, Jam-Jam, whatever you want to call him, is completely dry!"

Everyone looked at me, holding their food in their hands.

"Well, we can't have that, can we?" Remus said.

"Besides, it's his birthday! We can't have him feeling left out." Carina said, with a matter of fact look on her face.

I started to back away and looked towards Sirius for help.

Sirius just looked at me, nodded his head in understanding, and turned towards the others.

"Get him."

I widened my eyes and ran for my life with Evans, Sirius, Remus, and Carina chasing me all around the room.

Man, this was the best birthday ever.

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**Okay, up to par with the first chapter? I hope it is anyway. So, again (for the 50th time) I am sorry for the lateness and maybe this somewhat long chapter made up for it?**

**Thanks to all my reviewers, I love you all! I did send review responses to all registered users but I am afraid that the story will be taken down if I answer the anonymous reviewers on the story.**

**Keep reviewing and any new readers, please leave your birthdate (for further explanation refer back to chapter 1's author note)**

**The Big Dance**


	3. Second Year

Disclaimer: Nothing you see here is mine.

* * *

Summary: James and Lily have had many encounters over the years, some pleasant and some…not so pleasant but the most memorable ones happened during their birthdays. Join them as they go through one birthday after another throughout their years at Hogwarts.

**A/N: To answer some questions, Peter wasn't present during James' birthday because I believe that he was pretty close to his family (things I understood from reading the books). So Peter will be present basically on Lily's birthdays and not James' (usually) since he will be gone visiting his family. Similarly, Lily and Carina's other best friend, Tracy, will be there for the rest of the story since she only became good friends with them end of first year or so. **

**---------------**

**Dedicated to _Saphra_. Happy Birthday!

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**

Lily POV—Second Year

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_April 12—The Birthday_

I sprang out of bed at 6:00 once the sunlight poured into the room. Feeling slightly giddy, I looked over at my calendar and crossed off yesterday's date.

Finally, it's my birthday.

I thought that it would never come. Yesterday seemed to move so slowly that I swore my watch stopped. Actually, scratch that. It was probably moving backwards.

Getting up out of bed (and doing a little jig while I was at it) I quickly took a shower and ran to the Owlery, ignoring Carina's mumbling.

**---------------**

It was about 6:45 and I was waiting for my parent's letter, all the while reading the _Daily Prophet_. I was just turning to the page when my owl, Hermes, came swooping in with the letter. I jumped up excitedly and snatched the letter out of its claws and sat down to read it, all the while stroking Hermes' feathers.

_Our Lily,_

_Happy birthday, sweetie! You are finally 13 years old and now we have another teenager to deal with in the house (although I suspect you might be easier to handle than Petunia). You don't know how much we miss you but we'll see you soon I expect, what with Easter coming up so quickly, so keep your fingers crossed!_

_Home is the same as always. Or at least, as normal as it can get with your father, Petty, Oliver, and I all together in one house. Your father is up to his old antics again and is trying to fix the blasted dishwasher which he broke in the first place. I swear, sometimes I believe I have **four **children and not three children. Petty is fine and she does miss you (don't roll your eyes dear, it isn't becoming). She is in a bit of a bind with your Dad as she didn't exactly bring the best marks home but you know your father, he can't stay upset for too long. Oliver misses you a lot and he is grown very tall now! Recently, he brought home a stray duck from kindergarten and begged us to let him keep it. I couldn't bear to see it leave and eventually we wore your father down as well. When you come home for the holidays, you will see a new member of the Evans family named Quack Evans._

_Lily darling, do well in school and say hello to Carina and Tracy for me. Do make sure you bring them over again, they're sweet girls. We miss you very much and just can't wait to see you again!_

_With lots of love,_

_Mum, Dad, Petunia, Oliver, and Quack_

_P.S. Oliver wanted me to remind you that his birthday is in two months and he expects a magical gift that a future 6 year old is worthy of._

I set the letter down and closed my eyes, which were currently filled with tears. I shook my head and tried to get rid of my tears. It's my second year away from home at Hogwarts and I should be used to this by now.

But still, I would have liked to spend my thirteenth birthday with my family.

Grabbing the package that came with the letter, I carefully opened it and put the wrapping paper aside. Inside the box, I found a gorgeous gold necklace with a hand-crafted golden L hanging from the chain. I gasped in shock at the gift and silently thanked my family for giving me such a beautiful present. I hooked the necklace around my neck and tucking the letter and wrapping paper into my cloak, I headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

**---------------**

As it was still pretty early (Carina always said that 7:30 was too early to get up on the weekends), I didn't expect anyone to be downstairs eating breakfast.

But to my surprise, there was James Potter casually eating his scrambled eggs and holding his broomstick in his left hand.

"Potter?"

Potter turned his head, confused as to who would be calling his name so early in the morning, and saw me standing right next to him.

"Oh…hi Evans."

Grabbing the seat across from him, I filled my plate with some eggs and a slice of toast. We ate in silence for a few seconds before I finally broke the silence (never in a million years did I think _I _would be the first to break the ice in any conversation).

"So, Potter, you're awake at 7:30 on a Saturday morning. I never would have thought."

He shrugged. "Well, I never would have believed it either but I started getting up early after last year. You wouldn't believe how amazing it is to fly on your broomstick first thing in the morning."

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. "You're right. I wouldn't considering I don't even know how to ride a broomstick."

Potter widened his eyes. "What? I'll have to—no I'm going to—teach you sometime."

"Okay, I'll hold you to it."

"Anyways, what are you doing up so early?"

"Well, I have been getting up early for as long as I can remember. It was something that I learned from my father. When I was little, we used to wake up very early, way before everyone else, and always water the garden in our backyard. My parents take great pride in our garden. My father always let me water the daffodils first, since they were my favorite."

Potter nodded. "So…Lily doesn't like lilies?" he asked, a grin on his face.

I rolled my eyes. "That is so cliché. I mean, lilies are pretty and all, but I don't think that they are anything special. Daffodils are just as pretty as lilies. Sometimes, I say that I hate lilies just so people don't keep asking me that."

Potter just kept grinning. I must admit that he has a very nice smile. His white teeth weren't perfectly straight but the slight crookedness worked extremely well on him. He nodded at my letter and asked.

"What's that?"

"Oh, birthday letter from my parents."

Potter widened his eyes again and dropped his fork on his plate with a loud clatter.

"BLOODY hell! (Potter, don't swear!) I forgot, I can't believe I forgot, I never forget people's birthdays!" he said, while putting his head in his hands.

I looked at him in surprise. I didn't think he would even get me a present (I mean, are we even that great of friends?) let alone worry over the fact that he got me one.

"Look, Potter, it's fine that you didn't get me a present. In all honesty, I didn't really expect you—"

Potter looked up from the table and grinned.

"I'm just joking. Fooled you, didn't I? Of course I got you something. You gave me presents for my last two birthdays and I gave you one last year so obviously I would get you one this year." He said, with a look of mischief in his eyes.

I closed my mouth quickly, a blush creeping up onto my cheeks.

He lent down into his bag and pulled out a poorly wrapped gift for me.

"Um, thanks?"

"Maybe you should open it first." He said, a slight smile on his face.

I blushed again (darn cheeks!) and inwardly cursed myself. God, oh god, why am I making such a big fool of myself, and in front of James Potter nonetheless?

Shaking my head, I opened the gift slowly and found a book that I had been wanting for a long time.

"_The Real History of the History of Charms_! I have wanted this book forever…how did you know?"

"I asked Carina and she told me. So happy birthday Lily."

"Thanks, Po—James."

He looked at me with a confused look. "James?" he asked. Since his birthday in first year, we have this unspoken agreement to call each other by our first names on our birthday but by our surnames for the rest of the year.

"Yeah…

…I call all my friends by their first name."

He smiled that amazing smile of his and continued to eat his eggs with his fork.

**---------------**

Wow.

I never thought that I would have a good time with James Potter. We sat around for almost three hours just talking, playing chess, doing our homework, or just sitting around.

Soon, at around ten or eleven, everyone else decided to grace us with their presence. Carina walked next to me, yawned loudly and plopped herself down on the sofa, Sirius right next to her. Peter sat in the armchair slowly and Remus rubbed his eyes and sat on the floor with Tracy.

Now, Tracy Foster is one of my new best friends. Throughout most of first year, it was just me and Carina but one or two food fights later, we met Tracy. She is a muggleborn, like me, and is one of the sweetest people I have ever known. I can't think of anyone who hates her (except the Slytherins of course…besides, I think she has this thing where she needs to be accepted by everyone). She's smart and loves reading (you don't how nice it is to talk to someone about books and _not_ have them roll their eyes at you) and has this incredible passion for cooking and baking. Over the summer, Carina and Tracy came to my house and she made us crème brûlée and I almost _died_ after eating it. Since then, she doesn't hesitate to ask us to test her food or any ingredients in it.

They all were sitting a little weirdly like something was sticking out of their clothes. I looked at this curiously before my eyes lit up with happiness.

"All right, you guys. Can I have my presents now?"

"God, Lily. You shouldn't be so selfish. I mean, just because it is your birthday doesn't mean that we all got you presents." Sirius replied.

I nodded my head solemnly. "Of course, Sirius. You are right. But, since you did make me pick out my own gift, I know for a fact you at least got me a present so hand them over!"

They smiled sheepishly and before I knew it, there was a pretty big stack of gifts staring up at me.

Much to Sirius' dismay, I opened each gift slowly (so I could save the wrapping paper) and was extremely happy with what I got.

A set of muggle classics (_Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and A Tale of Two Cities)_ from Remus, some new mint-flavored chocolate from Tracy that she made, a new quill from Sirius as well as a gift certificate to a day of annoying Sirius for free, the new _Superman_ video from Carina, that Charms book from James, and a new History of Magic book from Peter.

Now, I don't really know Peter all the well since he usually leaves for home during all holidays but he is nice, but shy. Of course, I don't particularly care for History of Magic but it's the thought that counts. Besides, I could use it to study for exams and not have to listen to Binns anymore.

"History of Magic! Peter, what kind of gift was that? I mean, nobody likes History of Magic!" James asked, wrinkling his nose.

"Shut up, James (he looked offended at this). Peter, I really do like it. Don't listen to him." I said kindly.

Peter smiled at me in thanks.

**---------------**

Soon, the day was gone and the seven of us spent our time just hanging around or playing Monopoly (I must admit that for a muggle game, James is extremely good at it). Eventually it was dinner and the rest of the students started heading down to the Great Hall. Carina, Tracy, and I were going to follow them when Remus stopped us.

"Where are you guys going?"

We looked at each other in confusion.

"Um, Remus. Are you in another time zone or do you just not realize that it is dinner time? That is why people are heading over to the Great Hall, you know, for FOOD?" Carina said.

"Of course we realize it is dinner time Rina, but since it is our dear Lily's birthday, we decided we would take you to the kitchens for a lovely birthday treat." Sirius replied, while making a grand sweeping gesture with his arms.

"The kitchens? But isn't it a violation of school rules to go there?"

"Yeah, so?" The four of them said in unison.

"_So_, we could get a detention for this! Carina, Tracy what do you think about this?"

"To heck with detention. I'll go," Carina said, with a twinkle in her eyes. "I have never been there before."

Tracy bit her lip for a second before saying yes as well.

I stared at them. My own friends deserted me and now it seemed like I was the only one who didn't want to go.

"Come on, Lily. Live a little." James said with a slight cock to his head.

I could get a detention for this. I shouldn't go…I mean, is it worth it to get a detention for something as trivial as food?

No. I just won't go. I'll just say no and I won't give in to peer pressure!

But I don't want to be alone on my birthday—

Oh heck. Forget it, I'm going.

"Why not?"

**---------------**

The kitchens, although I hate to admit, were absolutely amazing. I didn't even know what house-elves were and I was a little shocked to say the least…but Carina assured me that house-elves were a common thing in the Wizarding World so there is nothing to be scared about.

After that amazing dinner, we all started to head back to the common room and somehow managed to squish ourselves back under James' invisibility cloak (which was hard considering there were seven of us and three of us were 5'7"). Amazingly, we got back to the common rooms without getting caught. Carina, Tracy, Sirius, Remus, and Peter all said good night and wished me a happy birthday once again before going up to the dorms. James started to go up as well but I grabbed his arm, blushing slightly at my actions. He turned around with an inquisitive look on his face.

"Thanks James for a wonderful birthday…and I really mean it."

He shook his head good-naturedly and grinned at me.

"Look, Lily. We're friends, right?"

"Right." I said, unsure about where he was going with this.

"Friends don't thank each other."

I smiled back at him and we stared at each other for a few seconds. Then, he turned his head and looked outside.

"Nice night, huh?"

I looked outside and sure enough, it was gorgeous.

James stared outside, turned his head back to me, and turned around so abruptly that my hand (which, for some strange reason, was still latched onto his) fell and I tripped.

"Wait right here." He said, while zooming up to the boys' dorms.

I had barely comprehended the fact that he left when he came zooming right back down, a broomstick in his left hand.

I looked at the broom, looked back outside, and a look of comprehension came onto my face.

My eyes started to widen and I shook my head.

"Come on, Lily. You promised you would let me take you flying one day." He said, referring back to our conversation in the morning.

I cringed, remembering my stupid mistake.

"Well—I mean—I didn't mean—You can't be serious."

"I am quite serious. Besides, I think you owe it to me because I managed not to say the horrible Sirius/serious pun. That was a struggle."

"I don't owe you, if anything you saved yourself from dying a horrible death."

"Point taken. Come on, Lily. It is one broomstick ride with the best broomstick rider on the planet! Nothing could go wrong!"

"You are, by no means, the best broomstick rider on the planet. That's not even a word. How can I trust someone who makes us their own words? Besides, no means no. So no, non, no way, and no chance am I going to get on that broomstick of yours."

**---------------**

I am going to kill James Tristan Potter.

I am on the back of a broomstick with the abovementioned person. I feel sort of bad for him because my arms are latched so tight around his waist that I _might _just be cutting off his circulation. But he seems alright, or at least as alright as anyone can be by just looking at the back of their head.

"Enjoying it, Lily?"

"James, you will regret this when we get back on the ground."

"Lily, you are at least 6 inches shorter than me. I think it is fair to say that I would probably win."

"James, I make up for size in intelligence. Sadly, I can't say that for you but I would be glad to teach you some…hexes or so."

"Right then. We'll go down but at least look at the grounds from here."

I opened one eye and slowly moved my head from its position on his back.

I hate to admit it but it is absolutely _gorgeous_.

My mouth opened in awe and I stared at the Quidditch Pitch, completely transfixed.

"It's so beautiful." I said, shock keeping me from saying anything else.

"That it is."

I turned my head and stared at James, who was staring the grounds in amazement.

"A year and a half of doing this and it never gets old."

Wow.

I have never seen James Potter like this.

"You know, James, most thirteen year old boys don't like to admit this to others, especially girls."

He blushed.

"Well, let's just keep it between you and me then."

I grinned.

"That's a promise."

We managed to get back to the dorms without anybody catching us again (honestly, were all teachers in France or something?). James took off the invisibility cloak. We stared at our shoes for a minute before my watch beeped.

It was midnight.

"I gotta go to sleep, Lily, but I will see you in the morning. Happy birthday."

"Thanks, but it's midnight. My birthday's over."

"Yeah, but in the Wizarding World, birthdays only end at 12:01."

I smiled. "Well then, thank you very much."

We both headed up to the second year dorms and I ran to my bed, flopping down onto it.

Birthdays until 12:01. What a brilliant concept.

* * *

**So another chapter finished. Much faster update this time. I am very proud of myself and I give myself an A for updating. So, if anyone feels (and don't worry, I do too) as though Lily and James acted pretty mature for second years, they kind of did. They are friends and they are thirteen years old. I tried writing this from a thirteen year old's perspective and hopefully it worked. **

**All you out there, review please, and keep leaving your birthday if you haven't already.**

**On a more fun side note, has anyone here seen the LION KING Musical? My god, it was the most brilliant show that I have ever seen! I didn't want to leave the theater after it was over and my parents practically had to drag me out of there. I listen to the soundtrack and I love it! Seriously, if you guys get the chance, go see it!**

**The Big Dance**


	4. Third Year

**Disclaimer: Nothing you see here is mine.

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**

Summary: James and Lily have had many encounters over the years, some pleasant and some…not so pleasant but the most memorable ones happened during their birthdays. Join them as they go through one birthday after another throughout their years at Hogwarts.

_Dedicated to **Alliane**.  
__Happy Birthday…hope you have a wonderful year! Sorry it's late but was going through some sort of revival thing and I wasn't able to upload on Wednesday. But it's here and hopefully you can forgive me for it being late.

* * *

_

James POV—Third Year

* * *

_December 20—The Birthday_

My eyes shot open and I sat up in bed, stretching my arms high above my head. I hardly needed an alarm clock anymore since I seemed to get up at 6:30 everyday by myself so I jumped out of bed and reached under my bed for my broomstick just like I usually do…

…only to find that it wasn't there.

I wrinkled my eyebrows in confusion. I always put my broom under my bed and while I may not be the most organized person in the world, I never lost _anything_ when it came to Quidditch.

"God, get away Regulus! I thought I told you…no marshmallows until _after _we finish hiding James' broomstick."

I pulled my head up in surprise and looked at my best mate. He seemed to be sound asleep but you could never tell with Sirius. I continued to watch him as he rolled over in his sleep, snoring and mumbling about broomsticks.

I slapped my head with my palm in realization and dropped my head backwards, groaning. Sirius must have sleepwalked again and hid my broomstick somewhere.

God damn it.

I got to figure out a way to stop this madness.

Looking around wildly, the broomstick was nowhere to be found.

Sigh.

Time to resort to drastic measures.

I cleared my throat and headed over to Sirius' bed as quietly as I could without waking anyone else up (contrary to popular belief, I do care about others' feelings). In my best Regulus Black impression, I leaned down towards Sirius' ear.

"Hey, brother. Um, I can't remember where it was that we put um…James' broomstick?" I asked hopefully.

Sirius snorted. "Idiot. Merlin, how on earth can you be related to me, the perfect Sirius Black? We charmed it to float above the wardrobe."

I looked around and found my broomstick floating above my four-poster bed.

Great.

What a way to spend my 14th birthday.

My eyes widened in surprise.

Huh, I actually remembered my birthday this year. That was weird, I never remember my birthday…Carina or Sirius always have to remind me.

Shaking my head free of thoughts, I tried bringing the broomstick down with my wand but found that it was stuck there.

Merlin and Agrippa, Sirius can perform spells perfectly in his sleep?

No wonder he always passes exams brilliantly.

I piled up the biggest books I could find in the room (pretty hard since many were just Quidditch magazines) and climbed up the stack of books carefully (Remus wouldn't be very happy with me right now). I had just managed to grab my broomstick when...

"James? What in Merlin's name are you doing?"

"AAAHHHH!"

I tumbled down and put my hands out to break my fall but I ended up falling onto the floor violently with the books crashing down onto my head.

"Oh, god! James, are you okay?"

Understatement of the century.

"Remus, you're supposed to be one of the smartest kids in our year. What do you think?"

"Oh, sorry. Need some help?"

I shook my head and tried to get up but found that any movement resulted in a wince and sometimes a yell.

I looked down at my hands and found both my wrists and my left thumb completely swollen. My head was throbbing violently and somewhere, on one of my legs I think, I was aware of a sharp pain but I couldn't figure out what was actually _in_ pain.

Probably my knee.

I looked up to see if all this pain actually resulted in my broomstick coming down.

But of course, Merlin just doesn't seem to have pity on me and my broomstick is still up there.

I groaned.

Just my luck.

But, that doesn't seem to be all that Merlin has in store for me. Oh no, he has managed to conjure up something else for me.

As I was looking up, I happened to notice something else. Remus' oh-so-wonderful bloody dictionary was balancing on the top of the bed, teetering on one of the poles attached to my bed.

"Remus?"

"Hold on, James. I am trying to find that first aid kit we should have around here." He said, running around the room all the while frantically throwing random clothes around.

I have no clue why Tracy gave Remus that first aid kit for his birthday last year but Remus insisted that we keep it.

Most probably for situations like this.

"Yeah, that's nice but if you move too close, that dictionary of yours will fall and hit me directly on the head."

Remus stopped moving. He turned his head and looked up, with a frown on his face. He sighed and mumbled, "How is it that _we_ get into these situations? We're supposed to be the smartest in our year."

"No," I replied, "You're the smartest in our year. We just happen to do extremely well on tests."

"Just forget it. Let me just find my wand and I'll summonthe dictionaryhere."

Before Remus could get his wand, Peter woke up (It's amazing how Peter could have slept through all this. Then again, Sirius is _still _sleeping through all this but I didn't expect any different from him).

"Hey guys, happy birthday by the way James, what are you doing?" Peter asked, all the while jumping off his bed.

"PETER, NO!" Remus shouted.

Unable to withstand any more, the dictionary fell and the last thing I heard before blacking out was…

"God, I know it's James' birthday and all but I need my beauty sleep!"

**---------**

"Is he awake?"

"Peter, if he was awake, wouldn't he have said something by now?"

"Remus, ever the logical one."

"Sirius, you're not one to be talking."

"Well, exc_uuuu_se me."

"Could you guys not talk so close to his face? What if he wakes up? I don't think the first thing he wants to see is inside your nostrils."

"Rina-baby, you wound my heart so."

"Shut up, Sirius."

"God, what is it? Bash on Sirius day?"

"It's always Bash on Sirius day."

I groaned loudly and put a hand to my head, silently wishing for them to stop. I opened my eyes but it was so bright that I yelled.

"James! You're awake!"

"Way to state the obvious, Peter." Sirius stated, with a dramatic roll of his eyes.

Carina and Remus ignored their daily banter and turned towards me instead.

"How are you feeling?" Carina asked with sympathetic eyes.

"Okay. My head is hurting a bit though. What happened?" I asked, turning towards Remus. "The last thing I remember is Mr. Beauty Queen over here (Hey!) getting up."

"Well, after you blacked out, Sirius woke up and started complaining about being woken up so early in the morning. Then, he noticed you lying on the floor and yelled so loud that Carina, Lily, and Tracy all came running into our room. After everyone finally got over seeing you on the floor all bloodied up and whatnot, I told them what happened and the six of us brought you over to Madame Pomfrey. She fixed your hands and your leg in a second but we had to wait for you to wake up. Lily and Tracy went off to get you some food and the four of us stayed here."

At this point, Lily and Tracy came in with two plates of steaming hot food.

"Hey, thanks Lily! I am starved…I haven't eaten anything since James knocked himself out." Sirius exclaimed while reaching for the plate of food.

Lily slapped his hand away (Ow!) and glared at him.

"You idiot! James wouldn't even be in here if it weren't for you. Honestly, bewitching his broomstick?" Lily said, flipping her long, beautiful hair back.

Wait a second.

Freeze and rewind.

…_Long, beautiful _hair?

Since when did I think that Lily had long, beautiful hair?

Lily sat next to me, with a concerned look on her face, and gave me my breakfast plate.

I turned to thank her but found myself amazed by the green eyes of hers. I was shocked and speechless by how incredibly complex and deep her eyes were. Suddenly, I felt like I could stare at those eyes for the rest of my life and still be completely happy.

My eyes widened.

No, no, no.

What in the name of Dumbledore is going on?

Did Sirius' spell last night accidentally hit me too? What—why—how can I be thinking like this?

Lily is my _friend_. My very good friend. My very good, stunning, nice, and talented friend.

I shook my head hard and gripped it with my hands.

What is the matter with me?

I cannot fancy Lily Evans.

I _don't_ fancy Lily Evans.

It must be the aftershocks of my accident. Yeah, that's the only explanation for all this.

Lily narrowed her wonderful eyes (Stop it James!) at me and asked if I was alright.

Oh, yeah. I'm alright. I'm perfectly peachy…

…except for the fact that I seem to be fancying the bloody pants off of you!

"Sure, everyone asks if _James_ is alright but nobody seems to care if dear ol' Sirius is feeling alright." Sirius said, glaring at everybody around him.

"Stuff it, Sirius." Remus said firmly.

Sirius cast one final glare in Remus' direction and turned towards Tracy instead.

"Doesn't matter. Tracy will give me some food, won't you Trae?"

She shook her head, albeit a little more nicely than Lily.

"Sorry, Sirius. This is especially for James…I made the sausage and eggs myself. I know they're your favorite James."

I grinned largely and smirked at Sirius, who looked shocked at no one wanting to give him any food.

"Thanks, you guys."

Sirius whimpered and put on his best puppy dog face to get some food from me.

"Come on, James. Old buddy, old pal. Won't you give your best mate some food?"

"Suck it up, Sirius." Carina said, rolling her eyes.

I cheekily grinned at Sirius, shrugged my shoulders, and dug into my breakfast.

Maybe after I get some food in me, I'll be back to normal again.

**---------**

After much convincing, Madame Pomfrey finally let me out of the Hospital Wing and the six of us headed back to the Common Room (Peter had to leave for home like he usually does).

As soon as I hit the comfortable couch, I had 3 different presents thrown in my direction (luckily, the largest one was not thrown).

"What was that for!"

"James, hurry up and open your presents! The quicker you open them, the faster we can get to Hogsmeade. You spent half your birthday in the Hospital Wing anyway." Sirius whined.

I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Well, if someone hadn't bewitched my broomstick, then—"

"Just open them, James." Tracy cut in hastily.

I opened up Tracy's gift first and found some yummy-looking desserts: chocolate, lollipops, and cookies. God, I love Tracy's presents…she makes the best food in the world.

"Um, thanks Trae, they look great but why are they all shaped like music notes and guitars?"

"Open the rest of the gifts and you'll see." She said simply.

My mind burning with curiosity, I opened Lily's present and found two books: one was titled _Guitar for Dummies: A Wizard's Guide A to Z Guide_ and the other was a diary.

"Lily, I don't mean to be mean, but men don't write in diaries."

She rolled her eyes at me. "Some man _you _are. Open the diary James."

I opened the diary and found myself smiling as I flipped through pages of lyrics and music to my favorite songs.

"It really bugged me how you used to just sing 1 or 2 lines from songs, claiming not to know the rest of it so I got the lyrics for them. I marked the songs that I liked and left half the book blank so you could either add more songs or write your own."

I looked at her to say thanks but found my throat closed up and dry again and instead, I just smiled and nodded at her.

Maybe I should go back to Madame Pomfrey to get checked up again.

Peter's gift consisted of a book of chords and songs that can be played in every situation (and I mean every situation…they had one for OWLS and one for History of Magic too).

Carina, already impatient with how slow I was moving, threw her gift at me and threatened to kill me if I didn't open it.

Inside was a new pair of Quidditch gloves that were super-resistant to keep the Quaffle from slipping from my hands (not that it does) and a note that said:

_For the rest of your gift…_

…_see Sirius and Remus'._

Confused, I took the last gift and slowly opened it to find something that I have wanted for the longest time.

A guitar.

No way.

There is no freaking way.

"You guys bought me a guitar? How did you know that this was what I wanted?"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "You were going on about one for as long as I can remember you and this year, Remus and I each paid half for it."

Remus stared at him and finally turned to me. "I can't believe you Sirius. James, you know better than to listen to Sirius' lies. It was my idea, mostly my money,and Sirius just thought it was so brilliant that he just had to take some credit for it."

Sirius blushed. "Well, I chose the style! Anyways James, did you see the rest of Carina's gift?"

I looked around the guitar but found nothing.

Carina sighed in annoyance. "Honestly, why I am friends with such a thick git is beyond me. James, did you look at the back of the guitar?"

I opened my mouth in understanding and turned the guitar around to find autographs of the players from my favorite Quidditch team, the Arrows.

I grinned. My friends knew me way too well.

"Now that the presents have been opened, let's head off to Hogsmeade!" Sirius said, clapping his hands together.

"Wait, didn't you guys get me a cake?"

Lily fidgeted. "Do you see one here James?"

"Well, you always get a cake. What, did you forget or something?"

"Why do you think we are going to Hogsmeade?

**---------**

I have never had so much fun anywhere in my whole 14 years of existence.

First, we headed off to Quidditch Supplies Store (by popular demand) and looked at new supplies.

Then we went to Scrivenshaft's so Remus and Lily could buy new quills (seriously, from how many different feathers can you make quills? I mean, a quill's a quill).

Afterwards, we headed to the Three Broomsticks to have butterbeers where all six of us had a drinking contest (Sirius and Carina tied).

Thankfully, we skipped over Madame Puddifoot's by unanimous decision.

Finally, we went to Honeydukes to have some the wizarding world's best chocolate (but I think Tracy's chocolate could rival theirs anyday). Sirius tried some blood-flavored lollipops and spent the rest of the day gagging every two seconds.

It was almost six o' clock when we headed back to Hogwarts but none of us wanted to go inside so we all sat around in the snow (after Lily performed some heating charms).

"Today was the best birthday ever."

Tracy looked at me in amusement. "You say that every year James."

"Yeah but I never knew that birthdays could be such fun. I thought that birthdays were just drinking tea with your parents' friends."

Lily shook her head. "You are so lucky you have us as friends."

Yeah, friends. Wish we could be so much more than that though.

Argh. Not again.

What is _wrong _with me? Why can't I stop thinking about Lily and how much I want to grab her and snog her like there's no tomorrow and—

Stop it, James Tristan Potter.

I groaned inwardly and starting punching the snow beneath me.

When will this madness stop?

I think Pomfrey struck me with a love spell when she was mending my arm.

"I think we should all head back inside…the cold must begetting to us." Remus said, looking at me curiously.

"But we haven't even had a snowball fight yet!" Sirius whined.

"Let's just go inside before McGonagall or someone yells at us." I said. I didn't want to be yelled at on my birthday. Besides, at least inside, I could make some excuse and head upstairs. That way, I wouldn't have see Lily and maybe by tomorrow, these _feelings _would leave.

The three of us started heading inside when all of a sudden…

Whack.

I stopped suddenly and shivered as the snowball went sliding down my neck and down my back. I quickly whipped around to see Lily, Carina, and Tracy doubled over in laughter, each with a respective snowball in their hands.

Beside me, Sirius started mumbling and I turned around to see both Sirius and Remus pelted with snowballs also. I narrowed my eyes.

"You didn't." I said flatly.

"Well, James. It looks like we did." Lily said, a grin breaking out onto her face.

"You know what this means, right?" Remus asked, his mischievous eyes breaking his calm stance.

"But of course." Carina and Tracy stated.

"SNOWBALL FIGHT!" Sirius yelled in happiness.

We spend the next 30 minutes throwing snowballs at each other. It was originally without magic but that rule went out the window 2 minutes into the fight.

I reached down to make another snowball and, with my wonderful Chaser aim, threw it at Lily, who shrieked and fell to the ground.

Oh shit.

Oh no, no, no, no, _no._

_Please_ don't let her be hurt. I would never forgive myself.

"Lily! Are you all right?" I asked and hurriedly ran towards her side. I kneeled down next to her to help her up only to have Lily grab me by my arm and pull me into the snow with her, smashing a snowball into my hair. I sputtered indignantly and tried to get all the snow out of my hair and off my clothes while Lily laughed right next to me.

I tried to glare at her but failed miserably. Her laugh was just so contagious and amazing that it was impossible to stay mad. I could listen to it all day.

Slowly, a grin appeared onto my face and I found myself laughing right alongside with her.

Screw it.

I admit it. I fancy Lily Evans.

You just can't fight love spells.

We were just sitting there and laughing our heads up when Sirius finally noticed our absence.

"Oi, James! Get over here and help, mate! We are losing the battle and I never lose snowball fights!"

Lily shook her head and stood up, brushing her sweater off.

"Come on, James. You wouldn't want Hogwarts to know that you lost to three girls now, did you?" She asked, grinning wickedly.

She reached a hand down to help me up and as I reached towards it, she pulled it away and ran towards Tracy and Carina.

"Come on, Potter! No pain, no gain!" She laughed, while sticking her tongue out at me.

Another goofy grin appeared on my face.

I am going to marry that girl.

* * *

**So…finally, huh? James finally comes to his senses and falls for the wonderful Lily Evans. The question now is…when will Lily come to her senses and fall in love with James?**

**Read, review, and wait for the next update to find out.**

**I really won't try to put this much time between updates but sometimes, I don't have much choice when I don't have enough birthdays to choose from (hint hint).**

**Hopefully, the next chapter will be up soon. I have to leave in about 5 minutes but I will post review responses when I get back. Hopefully by tonight.**

**The Big Dance**

**P.S. Wish me luck on my World History AP Exam!**


	5. Fourth Year

Disclaimer: Nothing you see here is mine. Oh, and some parts in this story come from the show _Friends_. See author's note at bottom for more information.

Summary: James and Lily have had many encounters over the years, some pleasant and some…not so pleasant but the most memorable ones happened during their birthdays. Join them as they go through one birthday after another throughout their years at Hogwarts.

* * *

_Dedicated to **CrystalKisses**.  
__Happy 15th Birthday…isn't it great to be fifteen years old finally? Well, this chapter is just perfect for you…such a coincidence (hee hee...you'll see why I am laughing after reading the chapter) that Lily turns fifteen in this chapter also. Enjoy!

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Lily POV—Fourth Year

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_April 12—The Birthday_

"Come on, Lily! Rise and shine! Up and at 'em! Get up, get up, get up!" Carina yelled, while pulling the covers off me.

I groaned, peaked at the clock (which said 6:00 AM), and pulled the covers back over me.

"Po uvay, Tenia, Vall git yup in nudder 4-5 mintes!" I mumbled from underneath the blanket.

"No, I will not go away and no, I do not trust you to sleep for only 45 more minutes Lily, especially after you hexed me for letting you sleep in last time." Carina said.

"It's amazing you could even understand exactly what it was she even said, Rina." Tracy stated from her bed.

"We've been friends for entirely too long, if you ask me." Carina replied.

Tracy rolled her eyes and hobbled over to my bed, yanking the covers off and charming them to stay off.

"Lily, get your arse out of bed this moment or you will be late for classes again and I—"

"—We," interrupted Carina.

"WE will not, under any circumstances, allow you to put us through that hell ever again." Tracy finished.

I came out from under the covers and stared, shocked, at Tracy.

"Did you just yell at me, Trae? You never yell at anyone." I asked in awe.

"Our little baby is growing up." Carina said, pretending to wipe tears from her eyes.

Tracy gave Carina a little shove and looked pointedly at me.

Probably hinting at me to get up out of bed.

"But Trae, it's Monday morning."

"Hence, the whole being-late-for-classes part, idiot."

"Monday morning." I emphasized by pointing at the calendar, ignoring Carina's remark.

"Yes, but it's also _your birthday_." Tracy replied back, pointing at the calendar also.

What?

"What?" I asked, looking at the calendar closely.

There it was, in plain text, Monday April 12th.

Oh, god.

I grabbed the calendar frantically and double-checked the dates, hoping that my birthday really did not fall on a Monday.

"She's gone nutters." Tracy whispered to Carina.

"No, she's gone _James_," Carina whispered back, "Honestly, Lily forgetting her birthday? That's such a James thing. It's as if Lily and James have switched personalities…James never forgets his birthday anymore and now this?"

"Reckon we should approach her or is it too dangerous?"

"We should stop the madness before it becomes too late," Carina stated firmly, "I'll do it...I've known her longer."

It's as if they don't even believe that I'm listening or something.

Carina came towards me, tapped me on the shoulder, and asked me the question that I knew would be coming.

"Lily, what's so wrong with your birthday being on a Monday?"

"What's wrong? What's not wrong? First of all, it's Monday. No one likes Mondays…I mean who wants to get up in the morning? Second of all, I don't want to have to go to classes on my birthday. Besides, every time my birthday falls on Monday, it becomes my worst day ever."

"Worst day ever? Aren't you being a little overdramatic?" Carina asked skeptically.

"Am I?" I whispered.

"Anyways, your birthday must have only fallen on Monday one, two times at most, since you were born." Tracy said logically.

"Exactly. And those were the two worst birthdays in the history of the entire existence of Lily Evans."

"Again, I reiterate, aren't you being a little overdramatic?"

"My first birthday—"

"First! Are you serious! You are including your first birthday as one of the worst birthdays in the world. How on earth do you even remember it?"

"My first birthday," I continued, "I somehow managed to crawl around on the floor while looking for a toy, knocked down some gas lamps that were on the counter, and set our kitchen on fire."

"And you were one?" Tracy asked, miserably trying to hold in her laughter.

"Well, it's very traumatizing for a one year to see firefighters come into your house, break down your door, and basically flood the room with hoses!"

By this time, Carina and Tracy were on the floor laughing hysterically, wiping tears from their eyes.

Well, it's nice to know that I have some very supportive friends.

"Well, I can see that I am not supported here. I'll just take my stuff and—"

"Okay, okay. We'll stop. God, you're such a drama queen. Continue on with the horrors of your life." Tracy said.

Carina was still too deep in her laughing fit to say anything.

"8th birthday: I was walking in the park with my parents and saw a gold watch on the ground. I picked it up to show my parents only to have two police officers come charging towards us."

"What's a police officer?" Carina asked, interested.

"I'll tell you later. Basically, think of them as smaller-scale Aurors." Tracy told her.

"Anyways, they thought that I had stolen the watch from some rich person and they took me and my parents, despite their insistence that I didn't do anything, down to the police station."

"You were arrested at the age of 8 and taken down for questioning for possession of a gold watch?" Tracy asked incredulously.

"Our Lily is a little criminal!" Carina sang.

I glared at them.

"Well, now don't you believe me? Lily Evans, birthdays, and Mondays just don't mix together!"

"Oh, come on Lily," Carina said seriously, "Even you can't be that superstitious. You had two birthdays that ended up like that as opposed to the other twelve other birthday parties thrown for you that were a success. It was just a coincidence. I reiterate, a co-in-ci-dence. In fact, say it with me."

"Carina, you're such an idiot."

"No Trae, I think you're the one who is the idiot."

I got up off the bed, grabbed my uniform, and headed for the shower shaking my head in amusement. My friends were incredibly annoying berks at times but I loved them for it.

As I undressed to get into the shower, I thought about what Carina said about it being coincidence. Maybe she is right. Maybe it all depends on the way I look at it.

I smiled and relaxed. They're right. I should stop being so paranoid. After I take my hot shower, I'll feel so much better.

I turned on the shower and stepped inside, waiting for the hot water to hit me.

In three...

two...

one...

AAAGGGHHH!

Maybe not.

Carina and Tracy turned towards the door in surprise as I came out of the bathroom in my uniform in a matter ofone minute.

"Lily, what happened?"

"There's no hot water! NO HOT WATER! I knew I wasn't being paranoid…Mondays are unlucky! Why did I even think that there was a possibility that you guys were right?"

Carina walked up to me and grabbed my shoulders.

"Lily, it was a coincidence. I reiterate, co-in-ci-dence."

"Carina, why do you keep saying reiterate over and over again?" Tracy asked her.

"Oh, it's my word of the day."

**---------**

That cold shower was only the beginning of my incredibly bad day.

First, the three of us were late to breakfast and got there 5-10 minutes before it ended.

Then, I found out that they were out of my favorite, scrambled eggs and bacon. I ended up having to eat two disgusting, dry pieces of toast.

Afterwards, we were late to Potions because I got my foot stuck in the trick staircase.

The three of us weren't able to pick our partners in Potions and I ended up getting partnered with Timothy Spalding.

He's not exactly the brightest star in the sky.

Then, I was pelted with water balloons by Peeves and ended up going soaked to Herbology.

James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter did try to make it up to me at lunch. James played this amazing song he wrote for me (I must say, he's got talent with that guitar of his), Sirius charmed the Slytherins' robes to have lilies on them (that did manage to cheer me up a little), Remus spent the whole day taking my notes for me so I could play Hangman with Carina and Sirius (he's always so amazingly thoughtful), and Peter left me a Pumpkin Pasty in every class.

I always knew I was friends with the Marauders for a reason.

But my day overrides any nice thing that anyone did for me.

**-**

After lunch, I was feeling a little bit better but then that idiot Randall Sykes asked if I would go to Hogsmeade with him next weeked. It was little weird how James kept glaring at him.

Anyways, it would have been alright if it weren't for the fact that he called me _Lola_.

Come on, give me a break. That was pretty unlucky if you ask me.

Then in Transfiguration, I was the last person to transform my porcupine into a pincushion. Somehow, I managed to change the porcupine but it became a half pincushion-half flying bat thing. It took us the rest of the class to try and get the bat down as well as to stop it from throwing pins at us.

I was the only one who got Transfiguration homework.

Of course, James offered to do it for me but I needed to learn and to tell you the truth, I am a little scared of McGonagall.

Needless to say, when I got back to the Gryffindor Common Room that night, I was ready for this nightmare to be over.

Only when I flopped down onto the couch, I had presents thrown at my face.

What, is it custom for us to throw presents at each other's faces or something?

"You guys, I really don't have to strength to open these right now. I mean, was this day horrible or horribly horrible?" I asked dramatically, throwing my hands next to my heart.

"Again, I reiterate, you're such a drama queen," Carina stated, "come on Lily, this was just purely coincidental. Co—"

"If you dare say coincidental, I will take all these presents and shove it up your arse."

Sirius, Remus, Peter, Tracy, and Carina just stared at me crazily.

"Wow, Lily really is having a bad day." Remus observed.

Way to go, Einstein.

"She does seem to be swearing a lot lately." Tracy said.

"Are you saying that Lily only swears when she's having a bad day?" Carina asked.

"Of course. Why would she swear when she's happy?" Tracy retorted.

"You never know...she could swear because she got a really good grade on an essay." Peter stated.

"Lily **always **gets good grades on essays." Sirius said.

"Let's just look at this objectively." Remus said, while Sirius took out a notebook to record things in.

I groaned while my friends argued about my bad days vs. my good days and sunk deeper into the couch.

Maybe I'll just open my presents without them. They don't seem to care very much anyway.

I first reached for James' present (I always love his, they're the best).

Carefully unwrapping the paper, I opened it to find a velvet box. Confused, I slowly opened the box only to find a set of flower-shaped golden earrings.

Oh, my.

He remembered.

He actually remembered.

A while ago, we were walking and as we passed by this jewelry shop, I saw these earrings. They looked exactly like the ones my Grandma used to wear and before she died, she always commented how she would one day give them to me.

But then my grandma died and all her stuff was pawned off. I never saw those earrings again but I desperately wanted to know where they went.

It was like fate wanted for me to see these earrings again. It must have been Merlin calling me, saying "Lily, it's your right to take these earrings."

Then again, 200 galleons is a little too much than I care to spend for my rights.

Anyways, I casually told James this story and listened intently (like he always does). But days and weeks passed and both of us never said anything so I assumed he had forgotten all about it.

But he hadn't.

"Where's James?" I asked, still staring at the earrings.

The five stopped arguing for a moment and finally noticed that I had already opened presents.

"Hey," Sirius said angrily, "you've already started. Why didn't you tell us?"

"Where's James? I need to find him." I said, ignoring his statement completely.

For some reason, the need to find James and thank him was so strong.

"I think I saw him in the Charms classroom about fifteen minutes ago." Remus said.

I ran off towards the Portrait Hole, ignoring my friends' outbursts, and rushed to find him.

When I finally reached the classroom, I expected James to be asking Flitwick some questions about homework.

What I saw was James throwing hexes at Snape crazily.

I stared in shock at the scene in front of me. I thought that he had learned his lesson.

But evidently not.

Anger started to replace my state of shock. How could he do this…and after he promised not to lay a finger on him.

Suddenly, the need to thank him was gone and it was replaced with something else.

I found myself yelling at him.

"JAMES TRISTAN POTTER!"

James winced slightly and abruptly turned around, causing Snape to hit the ground.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?"

"Well, Snape, you know Snape don't you Lily? He's in our year, slimy Slytherin—"

"Don't you dare change the topic on me!" I shouted at him.

At this point, I saw Snape head towards us but abruptly switch directions and head back to his Common Room before James noticed.

"Well, he was reading a book on Dark Arts and I needed to teach him lesson that Dark Arts are bad for the soul."

"You hexed him because he was reading a book on Dark Arts?" I asked him incredulously.

James winced again and bit his lip, hesitating slightly.

"Well, when you make it sound like that…"

"James, there's no way you can make that reason sound plausible! You hexed Snape because you saw him reading a Dark Arts book…that's like you hexing me for reading a muggle book!"

James' eyes grew wide.

"Oh, come on. I was just having a little bit of fun, Lily."

"Fun? You call cursing innocent people fun? Only Slytherins do that. I thought you _hated_ Slytherins, James. And if you do still believe it's fun, then you can have that kind of fun on your own. I'm leaving. I can't believe that I ran all the way over here just to thank you for such a wonderful birthday present. Obviously, you're not mature enough to be thanked."

With that, I turned around and ran towards the other end of the castle.

**---------**

I walked around in a place that I hoped James wouldn't find me in. I felt horribly guilty for telling him that but he deserved it.

He needed to know what a horrible thing he did and I would be the only person who would tell him.

I mean, Sirius and Peter would never tell him (Sirius would probably join him), Remus wouldn't approve but he wouldn't dare lash out against a friend, James would never take Carina's word seriously, and Tracy never yells at anyone (with the exception of this morning).

I'm the only one who ever stands up to him and challenges his opinions and actions.

I still wonder how it is we even became friends really. We have such clashing personalities and we almost always argue…I mean we're complete opposites.

But if I were to choose one Marauder, the one who I felt closest to, it would have to be James.

Funny how these things work.

"LILY! Lily, wait up!"

I spun around to find James running at a horribly fast speed. I stopped right where I was, with my arms crossed around my chest.

"Lily," he wheezed, "wait, just let me catch my breath. Shit, you were hard to find."

"Well, you can catch your breath for as long as you want. I'm going back."

"Oh, come on Lily. Hear me out."

"No. Leave me alone. I'm not done being angry with you just yet."

"But just tell me what to do so I can fix it."

"What?" I asked him tiredly.

"You know, I do something bad, you yell at me and run away, I try to find you (but usually you're somewhere around where I am), and you tell what it is that I have to do to fix our fight. So what, want me to buy you flowers, chocolate, Pumpkin Pasties? Or do you want me to do your Transfiguration homework?"

"James, I'm really tired of seeing you right now. I can't tell you what to do all the time. You're fifteen years old…you have to figure out what it is you did wrong. And we're not joking around anymore. This is serious and this is a real life problem. So come find me when you realize what it is you did wrong."

I walked towards the Common Room quickly, hoping to get James out of my way.

"Lily, come on. Lily, stop walking away from me and talk to me. Lily? Lily! LILY? Oh for god's sake." He said and ran towards me, pulling my arm.

Then he did something that I never expected.

What I expected was for him to kneel, beg, and plead for me to forgive him.

But I never expected him to pull me towards him…

…and kiss me.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you are correct.

James Tristan Potter is kissing me, Lily Michelle Evans.

What the hell is wrong with him?

I pushed him off me quickly, at which he protested quietly.

"What's wrong with you? Are you drunk? Is this your idea of fixing our fights? Because if it is, then we have a problem and I probably have to go back to being the relationship tutor."

"No Lily. Nothing's wrong with me and I'm perfectly sober. It's just that I hate fighting with you, I can't stand it when you walk away from me, and I absolutely can't bear it when you're angry at me. I care about you way too much." He finished, looking at his shoes.

"Care about me exactly _how _much?" I asked, dreading the answer.

"Lily," he murmured, "I like you. A whole lot. And much more than a friend."

Oh.

My.

God.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, _no_.

Merlin, please don't do this to me.

"Oh, god," I whispered, putting a hand to my mouth, "this can't be possible. This isn't happening. This isn't a cruel joke you're playing, is it?"

He just shook his head slowly, still staring at his shoes.

I gulped. "For how long?"

"About a year and a half. Since my 14th birthday really."

A year and a half! How is it that I didn't see it?

Oh, god. That's why James kept hurting and glaring at anyone who asked me out to Hogsmeade…and why he always blushed every time I caught him staring at me or holding my hand.

My best friend, James Potter, is in love with me.

And the worst part is, I don't love him back.

"Is there a chance that you, just might possibly, like me back Lily?" James asked, with a hopeful look in his eyes.

I stared at him, knowing my answer will crush him.

"I'm sorry, James. I just…it's hard to…I don't see you as anything more than a friend, that's all."

The look on his face almost tore my heart in two.

Oh, please don't make James cry. I can't handle it when he cries.

"Look, James." I started, hoping that there would be some way I could make him feel better.

But then he started laughing.

And laughing.

And laughing until he fell on the ground holding his sides.

"I can't believe you believed me!"

What?

"What?" I asked, shocked by this outburst.

"I was just kidding about liking you! I mean, seriously, why on earth would I like you? I mean, you're Lily Evans."

I stared at him. What does that mean?

"So what?" I asked, my anger bubbling.

"So what? I can't believe that you would actually believe that I liked you! You would think that—"

SLAP.

On the side of James' cheek, a red mark in the shape of a handprint started to appear.

"You bastard." I whispered, tears threatening to spill.

"What? It was a joke, Lily. Come on."

"_That _was a very sick joke. You're fifteen years old, James. Why can't you, for once, act your age and consider other people's feelings?" I spat at him, glaring as hard as I could.

"Lily—"

"It's Evans to you, _Potter_."

James stumbled backwards, a horrified look on his face. "Potter? Lily, you can't let a silly little joke ruin our friendship." he whispered.

"What friendship? I can't believe that I ever considered you my friend, my brother. I considered you my brother James. You were closer to me than Petunia, or even Oliver, ever was. And you just cut off any bonds we had with your idea of a joke. Well, the joke's on you, mister. I don't ever want to see your face again."

James looked absolutely stunned. "What?"

"Leave me alone and never, I reiterate, never bother me again."

"You can't be serious."

"Oh, just try me." I replied in a deathly whisper.

James tried to catch a hold of my arm but I pulled out my wand and stepped away.

"Come another step closer and I will not hesitate to hex you."

"Please, Lily. Don't do this to me, to us. You're one of my best friends."

"You should have thought of that beforehand." With that said, I ran away from him, tears fully flowing from my eyes.

I ran into the Gryffindor Common Room and fell onto my bed, sobbing and sobbing.

I felt as if I would never be able to stop crying.

Throughout the whole night, I tried to get rid of everything…pictures, toys, candy, prank stuff, everything. Just to see if it would help me forget him.

But nothing was working.

And the worst part was that I wasn't able to get James' face out of my mind the entire time.

This is by far the worst Monday birthday, no, worst birthday ever.

* * *

**Dramatic, no? Well, yay for me! Fast update, don't you think? This is for that long 2 month wait I put you guys through. Anyways, there weren't that many different reviews between Chapter 3 and 4 (actually not that many) so I decided to just combine the two review responses. **

**Oh, and the thing about the relationship tutor, Lily telling James how to fix problems, and James remembering about Lily's grandma's earrings...those are also ideas that I borrowed from the show Friends. It just seemed to fit.**

**Hopefully, I'll do it by tonight.**

**Crystalkisses, hope you liked it!**

**The Big Dance**


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